Policy enforcement and performance monitoring at sub-lun granularity

ABSTRACT

Techniques are provided for enforcing policies at a sub-logical unit number (LUN) granularity, such as at a virtual disk or virtual machine granularity. A block range of a virtual disk of a virtual machine stored within a LUN is identified. A quality of service policy object is assigned to the block range to create a quality of service workload object. A target block range targeted by an operation is identified. A quality of service policy of the quality of service policy object is enforced upon the operation using the quality of service workload object based upon the target block range being within the block range of the virtual disk.

BACKGROUND

A virtualization environment can be used to host and manage virtualmachines. A virtual machine stores an operating system, applicationdata, and/or user data within virtual disks. The virtualizationenvironment may store the virtual disks of the virtual machines hostedby the virtualization environment within logical unit numbers (LUNs),such as within a storage area network (SAN). For example, thevirtualization environment may host a file system within a LUN. Thevirtualization environment may store the virtual disks as files withinthe file system hosted by the virtualization environment. Unfortunately,the virtualization environment may expose little to no virtual machineinformation, such as to a separate service such as a storage service,which could otherwise be used to manage and provide additionalfunctionality for the virtual machines and/or virtual disks. Forexample, the storage service may be capable of enforcing a policy, suchas a quality of service (QoS) policy, for the LUN, but would be unableto enforce the policy at sub-LUN granularity such as a virtual machineor virtual disk granularity due to the lack of access to the virtualmachine information from the virtualization environment. If a quality ofservice policy is applied to merely the LUN, then all virtual machineshaving virtual disks stored within the LUN would be assigned to thatsame quality of service policy. In many instances, this is undesirablebecause the virtualization environment may store virtual machines ofdifferent clients that have subscribed to different levels of quality ofservice policies within the same LUN.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing environmentin which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a network environment withexemplary node computing devices.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary node computingdevice.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for policyenforcement at sub-lun granularity.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example system for policyenforcement at sub-lun granularity, where a policy is enforced at avirtual disk granularity.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example system for policyenforcement at sub-lun granularity, where a policy is enforced at avirtual machine granularity.

FIG. 7 is an example of a computer readable medium in which anembodiment of the invention may be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some examples of the claimed subject matter are now described withreference to the drawings, where like reference numerals are generallyused to refer to like elements throughout. In the following description,for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide an understanding of the claimed subject matter. It maybe evident, however, that the claimed subject matter may be practicedwithout these specific details. Nothing in this detailed description isadmitted as prior art.

Clients of a storage service may subscribe to certain amounts ofprocessing resources, performance and throughput (e.g., a minimum andmaximum number of operations per second), storage resources, an amountof redundancy, security, bandwidth, and/or other guarantees. The storageservice can enforce such performance and resource guarantees usingpolicies, such as a quality of service policy. The quality of servicepolicy is used to ensure that adequate resources (e.g., storageresources, nodes, hardware or software resources, etc.) are allocated sothat performance, throughput, storage, processing resources, and otherguarantees subscribed to by a client are met.

Within certain computing environments, such as network attached storage(NAS) environment, a quality of service policy can be specified atvarious levels of granularity. This is because files within the networkattached storage environment can be easily identified, accessed, andmanaged by the storage service (e.g., by a node). Thus, a quality ofservice policy can be applied on any of these files, and performance ofthe files can be monitored to ensure that the quality of service policyis being met. Thus, the quality of service policy can be applied at afile level granularity. For example, a file may comprise a virtual diskof a virtual machine. Because the file and information about the file iseasily accessible within the network attached storage environment to thestorage service, a quality of service policy of the virtual machineand/or virtual disk can easily be attached to that file.

Unfortunately, it is difficult or impossible to attach policies tovirtual machines and/or virtual disks of virtual machines within othertypes of storage environments, such as a virtualization environment. Inparticular, the virtualization environment creates a file system over alogical unit number (LUN). The virtualization environment is configuredto host virtual machines having virtual disks that are stored within thefile system over the LUN. The virtualization environment does notnatively provide quality of service guarantees and monitoring. However,a service such as the storage service that is capable of providingquality of service guarantees and monitoring is unable to provide suchfor virtual machines and virtual disks managed by the virtualizationenvironment because the virtualization environment does not providevirtual machine and virtual disk information to the storage service thatwould be needed for enforcing and monitoring policies upon virtual diskswithin the file system. The storage service may be able to enforce andmonitor a policy upon the entire LUN but is unable to do the same at asub-LUN granularity such as at a virtual disk or virtual machinegranularity due to the lack of information exposed by the virtualenvironment to the storage service.

Accordingly, as provided herein, enforcement of a policy such as aquality of service policy and performance monitoring can be performed ata sub-LUN granularity by a storage service such as at a virtual machinegranularity and/or a virtual disk granularity of virtual machinesmanaged by a virtualization environment that is separate from thestorage service. For example, a quality of service policy is to beenforced for a virtual disk of a virtual machine hosted by thevirtualization environment. The virtual disk is stored through a filesystem hosted by the virtualization environment for a LUN. Accordingly,a block range of the virtual disk stored within the LUN is identified.For example, a management tier of the virtualization environment hostingthe virtual machine and storing the virtual disk within the LUN mayprovide the block range at which the virtual disk is stored withinstorage managed by the storage service. In this way, the quality ofservice policy can be assigned for the block range of the LUN byassigning a quality of service policy object, managed by the storageservice, to the block range of the virtual disk to create a quality ofservice workload object managed by the storage service. The virtual diskblock range may be continuous or non-continuous.

When the storage service receives an I/O operation (e.g., a storageoperating system of a node of the storage service hosting storagedevices within which the virtual disks and virtual machines are stored),the operation is evaluated to identify a target block range (e.g., alogical block address) targeted by the operation. Accordingly, if thetarget block range is within the block range of the virtual disk (e.g.,the operation is directed to the virtual disk), then the quality ofservice policy of the quality of service policy object is enforced uponthe operation using the quality of service workload object. Otherwise,if the target block range is outside the block range of the virtual disk(e.g., the operation is directed to other data than the virtual disk),then the quality of service policy is not enforced upon the operation.Furthermore, the quality of service workload object can be used tomonitor performance of the virtual disk, such as latency of processingoperations. Additionally, the quality of service policy can be appliedto multiple virtual disks, such as a set of virtual disks of a virtualmachine. Thus, the quality of service policy can also be applied at avirtual machine granularity.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example operating environment 100 inwhich an embodiment of the techniques described herein may beimplemented. In one example, the techniques described herein may beimplemented within a client device 128, such as a laptop, a tablet, apersonal computer, a mobile device, a server, a virtual machine, awearable device, etc. In another example, the techniques describedherein may be implemented within one or more nodes, such as a first node130 and/or a second node 132 within a first cluster 134, a third node136 within a second cluster 138, etc. A node may comprise a storagecontroller, a server, an on-premise device, a virtual machine such as astorage virtual machine, hardware, software, or combination thereof. Theone or more nodes may be configured to manage the storage and access todata on behalf of the client device 128 and/or other client devices. Inanother example, the techniques described herein may be implementedwithin a distributed computing platform 102 such as a cloud computingenvironment (e.g., a cloud storage environment, a multi-tenant platform,a hyperscale infrastructure comprising scalable server architectures andvirtual networking, etc.) configured to manage the storage and access todata on behalf of client devices and/or nodes.

In yet another example, at least some of the techniques described hereinare implemented across one or more of the client device 128, the one ormore nodes, and/or the distributed computing platform 102. For example,the client device 128 may transmit operations, such as data operationsto read data and write data and metadata operations (e.g., a create fileoperation, a rename directory operation, a resize operation, a setattribute operation, etc.), over a network 126 to the first node 130 forimplementation by the first node 130 upon storage. The first node 130may store data associated with the operations within volumes or otherdata objects/structures hosted within locally attached storage, remotestorage hosted by other computing devices accessible over the network126, storage provided by the distributed computing platform 102, etc.The first node 130 may replicate the data and/or the operations to othercomputing devices, such as to the second node 132, the third node 136, astorage virtual machine executing within the distributed computingplatform 102, etc., so that one or more replicas of the data aremaintained. For example, the third node 136 may host a destinationstorage volume that is maintained as a replica of a source storagevolume of the first node 130. Such replicas can be used for disasterrecovery and failover.

In an embodiment, the techniques described herein are implemented by astorage operating system or are implemented by a separate module thatinteracts with the storage operating system. The storage operatingsystem may be hosted by the client device, 128, a node, the distributedcomputing platform 102, or across a combination thereof. In an example,the storage operating system may execute within a storage virtualmachine, a hyperscaler, or other computing environment. The storageoperating system may implement a storage file system to logicallyorganize data within storage devices as one or more storage objects andprovide a logical/virtual representation of how the storage objects areorganized on the storage devices. A storage object may comprise anylogically definable storage element stored by the storage operatingsystem (e.g., a volume stored by the first node 130, a cloud objectstored by the distributed computing platform 102, etc.). Each storageobject may be associated with a unique identifier that uniquelyidentifies the storage object. For example, a volume may be associatedwith a volume identifier uniquely identifying that volume from othervolumes. The storage operating system also manages client access to thestorage objects.

The storage operating system may implement a file system for logicallyorganizing data. For example, the storage operating system may implementa write anywhere file layout for a volume where modified data for a filemay be written to any available location as opposed to a write-in-placearchitecture where modified data is written to the original location,thereby overwriting the previous data. In an example, the file systemmay be implemented through a file system layer that stores data of thestorage objects in an on-disk format representation that is block-based(e.g., data is stored within 4 kilobyte blocks and inodes are used toidentify files and file attributes such as creation time, accesspermissions, size and block location, etc.).

In an example, deduplication may be implemented by a deduplicationmodule associated with the storage operating system. Deduplication isperformed to improve storage efficiency. One type of deduplication isinline deduplication that ensures blocks are deduplicated before beingwritten to a storage device. Inline deduplication uses a data structure,such as an incore hash store, which maps fingerprints of data to datablocks of the storage device storing the data. Whenever data is to bewritten to the storage device, a fingerprint of that data is calculatedand the data structure is looked up using the fingerprint to findduplicates (e.g., potentially duplicate data already stored within thestorage device). If duplicate data is found, then the duplicate data isloaded from the storage device and a byte by byte comparison may beperformed to ensure that the duplicate data is an actual duplicate ofthe data to be written to the storage device. If the data to be writtenis a duplicate of the loaded duplicate data, then the data to be writtento disk is not redundantly stored to the storage device. Instead, apointer or other reference is stored in the storage device in place ofthe data to be written to the storage device. The pointer points to theduplicate data already stored in the storage device. A reference countfor the data may be incremented to indicate that the pointer nowreferences the data. If at some point the pointer no longer referencesthe data (e.g., the deduplicated data is deleted and thus no longerreferences the data in the storage device), then the reference count isdecremented. In this way, inline deduplication is able to deduplicatedata before the data is written to disk. This improves the storageefficiency of the storage device.

Background deduplication is another type of deduplication thatdeduplicates data already written to a storage device. Various types ofbackground deduplication may be implemented. In an example of backgrounddeduplication, data blocks that are duplicated between files arerearranged within storage units such that one copy of the data occupiesphysical storage. References to the single copy can be inserted into afile system structure such that all files or containers that contain thedata refer to the same instance of the data. Deduplication can beperformed on a data storage device block basis. In an example, datablocks on a storage device can be identified using a physical volumeblock number. The physical volume block number uniquely identifies aparticular block on the storage device. Additionally, blocks within afile can be identified by a file block number. The file block number isa logical block number that indicates the logical position of a blockwithin a file relative to other blocks in the file. For example, fileblock number 0 represents the first block of a file, file block number 1represents the second block, etc. File block numbers can be mapped to aphysical volume block number that is the actual data block on thestorage device. During deduplication operations, blocks in a file thatcontain the same data are deduplicated by mapping the file block numberfor the block to the same physical volume block number, and maintaininga reference count of the number of file block numbers that map to thephysical volume block number. For example, assume that file block number0 and file block number 5 of a file contain the same data, while fileblock numbers 1-4 contain unique data. File block numbers 1-4 are mappedto different physical volume block numbers. File block number 0 and fileblock number 5 may be mapped to the same physical volume block number,thereby reducing storage requirements for the file. Similarly, blocks indifferent files that contain the same data can be mapped to the samephysical volume block number. For example, if file block number 0 offile A contains the same data as file block number 3 of file B, fileblock number 0 of file A may be mapped to the same physical volume blocknumber as file block number 3 of file B.

In another example of background deduplication, a changelog is utilizedto track blocks that are written to the storage device. Backgrounddeduplication also maintains a fingerprint database (e.g., a flatmetafile) that tracks all unique block data such as by tracking afingerprint and other filesystem metadata associated with block data.Background deduplication can be periodically executed or triggered basedupon an event such as when the changelog fills beyond a threshold. Aspart of background deduplication, data in both the changelog and thefingerprint database is sorted based upon fingerprints. This ensuresthat all duplicates are sorted next to each other. The duplicates aremoved to a dup file. The unique changelog entries are moved to thefingerprint database, which will serve as duplicate data for a nextdeduplication operation. In order to optimize certain filesystemoperations needed to deduplicate a block, duplicate records in the dupfile are sorted in certain filesystem sematic order (e.g., inode numberand block number). Next, the duplicate data is loaded from the storagedevice and a whole block byte by byte comparison is performed to makesure duplicate data is an actual duplicate of the data to be written tothe storage device. After, the block in the changelog is modified topoint directly to the duplicate data as opposed to redundantly storingdata of the block.

In an example, deduplication operations performed by a datadeduplication layer of a node can be leveraged for use on another nodeduring data replication operations. For example, the first node 130 mayperform deduplication operations to provide for storage efficiency withrespect to data stored on a storage volume. The benefit of thededuplication operations performed on first node 130 can be provided tothe second node 132 with respect to the data on first node 130 that isreplicated to the second node 132. In some aspects, a data transferprotocol, referred to as the LRSE (Logical Replication for StorageEfficiency) protocol, can be used as part of replicating consistencygroup differences from the first node 130 to the second node 132. In theLRSE protocol, the second node 132 maintains a history buffer that keepstrack of data blocks that it has previously received. The history buffertracks the physical volume block numbers and file block numbersassociated with the data blocks that have been transferred from firstnode 130 to the second node 132. A request can be made of the first node130 to not transfer blocks that have already been transferred. Thus, thesecond node 132 can receive deduplicated data from the first node 130,and will not need to perform deduplication operations on thededuplicated data replicated from first node 130.

In an example, the first node 130 may preserve deduplication of datathat is transmitted from first node 130 to the distributed computingplatform 102. For example, the first node 130 may create an objectcomprising deduplicated data. The object is transmitted from the firstnode 130 to the distributed computing platform 102 for storage. In thisway, the object within the distributed computing platform 102 maintainsthe data in a deduplicated state. Furthermore, deduplication may bepreserved when deduplicated data is transmitted/replicated/mirroredbetween the client device 128, the first node 130, the distributedcomputing platform 102, and/or other nodes or devices.

In an example, compression may be implemented by a compression moduleassociated with the storage operating system. The compression module mayutilize various types of compression techniques to replace longersequences of data (e.g., frequently occurring and/or redundantsequences) with shorter sequences, such as by using Huffman coding,arithmetic coding, compression dictionaries, etc. For example, anuncompressed portion of a file may comprise “ggggnnnnnnqqqqqqqqqq”,which is compressed to become “4g6n10q”. In this way, the size of thefile can be reduced to improve storage efficiency. Compression may beimplemented for compression groups. A compression group may correspondto a compressed group of blocks. The compression group may berepresented by virtual volume block numbers. The compression group maycomprise contiguous or non-contiguous blocks.

Compression may be preserved when compressed data istransmitted/replicated/mirrored between the client device 128, a node,the distributed computing platform 102, and/or other nodes or devices.For example, an object may be create by the first node 130 to comprisecompressed data. The object is transmitted from the first node 130 tothe distributed computing platform 102 for storage. In this way, theobject within the distributed computing platform 102 maintains the datain a compressed state.

In an example, various types of synchronization may be implemented by asynchronization module associated with the storage operating system. Inan example, synchronous replication may be implemented, such as betweenthe first node 130 and the second node 132. It may be appreciated thatthe synchronization module may implement synchronous replication betweenany devices within the operating environment 100, such as between thefirst node 130 of the first cluster 134 and the third node 136 of thesecond cluster 138.

During synchronous replication, the first node 130 may receive a writeoperation from the client device 128. The write operation may target afile stored within a volume managed by the first node 130. The firstnode 130 replicates the write operation to create a replicated writeoperation. The first node 130 locally implements the write operationupon the file within the volume. The first node 130 also transmits thereplicated write operation to a synchronous replication target, such asthe second node 132 that maintains a replica volume as a replica of thevolume maintained by the first node 130. The second node 132 willexecute the replicated write operation upon the replica volume so thatfile within the volume and the replica volume comprises the same data.After, the second node 132 will transmit a success message to the firstnode 130. With synchronous replication, the first node 130 does notrespond with a success message to the client device 128 for the writeoperation until both the write operation is executed upon the volume andthe first node 130 receives the success message that the second node 132executed the replicated write operation upon the replica volume.

In another example, asynchronous replication may be implemented, such asbetween the first node 130 and the third node 136. It may be appreciatedthat the synchronization module may implement asynchronous replicationbetween any devices within the operating environment 100, such asbetween the first node 130 of the first cluster 134 and the distributedcomputing platform 102. In an example, the first node 130 may establishan asynchronous replication relationship with the third node 136. Thefirst node 130 may capture a baseline snapshot of a first volume as apoint in time representation of the first volume. The first node 130 mayutilize the baseline snapshot to perform a baseline transfer of the datawithin the first volume to the third node 136 in order to create asecond volume within the third node 136 comprising data of the firstvolume as of the point in time at which the baseline snapshot wascreated.

After the baseline transfer, the first node 130 may subsequently createsnapshots of the first volume over time. As part of asynchronousreplication, an incremental transfer is performed between the firstvolume and the second volume. In particular, a snapshot of the firstvolume is created. The snapshot is compared with a prior snapshot thatwas previously used to perform the last asynchronous transfer (e.g., thebaseline transfer or a prior incremental transfer) of data to identify adifference in data of the first volume between the snapshot and theprior snapshot (e.g., changes to the first volume since the lastasynchronous transfer). Accordingly, the difference in data isincrementally transferred from the first volume to the second volume. Inthis way, the second volume will comprise the same data as the firstvolume as of the point in time when the snapshot was created forperforming the incremental transfer. It may be appreciated that othertypes of replication may be implemented, such as semi-sync replication.

In an embodiment, the first node 130 may store data or a portion thereofwithin storage hosted by the distributed computing platform 102 bytransmitting the data within objects to the distributed computingplatform 102. In one example, the first node 130 may locally storefrequently accessed data within locally attached storage. Lessfrequently accessed data may be transmitted to the distributed computingplatform 102 for storage within a data storage tier 108. The datastorage tier 108 may store data within a service data store 120, and maystore client specific data within client data stores assigned to suchclients such as a client (1) data store 122 used to store data of aclient (1) and a client (N) data store 124 used to store data of aclient (N). The data stores may be physical storage devices or may bedefined as logical storage, such as a virtual volume, LUNs, or otherlogical organizations of data that can be defined across one or morephysical storage devices. In another example, the first node 130transmits and stores all client data to the distributed computingplatform 102. In yet another example, the client device 128 transmitsand stores the data directly to the distributed computing platform 102without the use of the first node 130.

The management of storage and access to data can be performed by one ormore storage virtual machines (SMVs) or other storage applications thatprovide software as a service (SaaS) such as storage software services.In one example, an SVM may be hosted within the client device 128,within the first node 130, or within the distributed computing platform102 such as by the application server tier 106. In another example, oneor more SVMs may be hosted across one or more of the client device 128,the first node 130, and the distributed computing platform 102. The oneor more SVMs may host instances of the storage operating system.

In an example, the storage operating system may be implemented for thedistributed computing platform 102. The storage operating system mayallow client devices to access data stored within the distributedcomputing platform 102 using various types of protocols, such as aNetwork File System (NFS) protocol, a Server Message Block (SMB)protocol and Common Internet File System (CIFS), and Internet SmallComputer Systems Interface (iSCSI), and/or other protocols. The storageoperating system may provide various storage services, such as disasterrecovery (e.g., the ability to non-disruptively transition clientdevices from accessing a primary node that has failed to a secondarynode that is taking over for the failed primary node), backup andarchive function, replication such as asynchronous and/or synchronousreplication, deduplication, compression, high availability storage,cloning functionality (e.g., the ability to clone a volume, such as aspace efficient flex clone), snapshot functionality (e.g., the abilityto create snapshots and restore data from snapshots), data tiering(e.g., migrating infrequently accessed data to slower/cheaper storage),encryption, managing storage across various platforms such as betweenon-premise storage systems and multiple cloud systems, etc.

In one example of the distributed computing platform 102, one or moreSVMs may be hosted by the application server tier 106. For example, aserver (1) 116 is configured to host SVMs used to execute applicationssuch as storage applications that manage the storage of data of theclient (1) within the client (1) data store 122. Thus, an SVM executingon the server (1) 116 may receive data and/or operations from the clientdevice 128 and/or the first node 130 over the network 126. The SVMexecutes a storage application and/or an instance of the storageoperating system to process the operations and/or store the data withinthe client (1) data store 122. The SVM may transmit a response back tothe client device 128 and/or the first node 130 over the network 126,such as a success message or an error message. In this way, theapplication server tier 106 may host SVMs, services, and/or otherstorage applications using the server (1) 116, the server (N) 118, etc.

A user interface tier 104 of the distributed computing platform 102 mayprovide the client device 128 and/or the first node 130 with access touser interfaces associated with the storage and access of data and/orother services provided by the distributed computing platform 102. In anexample, a service user interface 110 may be accessible from thedistributed computing platform 102 for accessing services subscribed toby clients and/or nodes, such as data replication services, applicationhosting services, data security services, human resource services,warehouse tracking services, accounting services, etc. For example,client user interfaces may be provided to corresponding clients, such asa client (1) user interface 112, a client (N) user interface 114, etc.The client (1) can access various services and resources subscribed toby the client (1) through the client (1) user interface 112, such asaccess to a web service, a development environment, a human resourceapplication, a warehouse tracking application, and/or other services andresources provided by the application server tier 106, which may usedata stored within the data storage tier 108.

The client device 128 and/or the first node 130 may subscribe to certaintypes and amounts of services and resources provided by the distributedcomputing platform 102. For example, the client device 128 may establisha subscription to have access to three virtual machines, a certainamount of storage, a certain type/amount of data redundancy, a certaintype/amount of data security, certain service level agreements (SLAs)and service level objectives (SLOs), latency guarantees, bandwidthguarantees, access to execute or host certain applications, etc.Similarly, the first node 130 can establish a subscription to haveaccess to certain services and resources of the distributed computingplatform 102.

As shown, a variety of clients, such as the client device 128 and thefirst node 130, incorporating and/or incorporated into a variety ofcomputing devices may communicate with the distributed computingplatform 102 through one or more networks, such as the network 126. Forexample, a client may incorporate and/or be incorporated into a clientapplication (e.g., software) implemented at least in part by one or moreof the computing devices.

Examples of suitable computing devices include personal computers,server computers, desktop computers, nodes, storage servers, nodes,laptop computers, notebook computers, tablet computers or personaldigital assistants (PDAs), smart phones, cell phones, and consumerelectronic devices incorporating one or more computing devicecomponents, such as one or more electronic processors, microprocessors,central processing units (CPU), or controllers. Examples of suitablenetworks include networks utilizing wired and/or wireless communicationtechnologies and networks operating in accordance with any suitablenetworking and/or communication protocol (e.g., the Internet). In usecases involving the delivery of customer support services, the computingdevices noted represent the endpoint of the customer support deliveryprocess, i.e., the consumer's device.

The distributed computing platform 102, such as a multi-tenant businessdata processing platform or cloud computing environment, may includemultiple processing tiers, including the user interface tier 104, theapplication server tier 106, and a data storage tier 108. The userinterface tier 104 may maintain multiple user interfaces, includinggraphical user interfaces and/or web-based interfaces. The userinterfaces may include the service user interface 110 for a service toprovide access to applications and data for a client (e.g., a “tenant”)of the service, as well as one or more user interfaces that have beenspecialized/customized in accordance with user specific requirements,which may be accessed via one or more APIs.

The service user interface 110 may include components enabling a tenantto administer the tenant's participation in the functions andcapabilities provided by the distributed computing platform 102, such asaccessing data, causing execution of specific data processingoperations, etc. Each processing tier may be implemented with a set ofcomputers, virtualized computing environments such as a storage virtualmachine or storage virtual server, and/or computer components includingcomputer servers and processors, and may perform various functions,methods, processes, or operations as determined by the execution of asoftware application or set of instructions.

The data storage tier 108 may include one or more data stores, which mayinclude the service data store 120 and one or more client data stores.Each client data store may contain tenant-specific data that is used aspart of providing a range of tenant-specific business and storageservices or functions, including but not limited to ERP, CRM, eCommerce,Human Resources management, payroll, storage services, etc. Data storesmay be implemented with any suitable data storage technology, includingstructured query language (SQL) based relational database managementsystems (RDBMS), file systems hosted by operating systems, objectstorage, etc.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the distributedcomputing platform 102 may be a multi-tenant and service platformoperated by an entity in order to provide multiple tenants with a set ofbusiness related applications, data storage, and functionality. Theseapplications and functionality may include ones that a business uses tomanage various aspects of its operations. For example, the applicationsand functionality may include providing web-based access to businessinformation systems, thereby allowing a user with a browser and anInternet or intranet connection to view, enter, process, or modifycertain types of business information or any other type of information.

A clustered network environment 200 that may implement one or moreaspects of the techniques described and illustrated herein is shown inFIG. 2. The clustered network environment 200 includes data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) that are coupled over a cluster or clusterfabric 204 that includes one or more communication network(s) andfacilitates communication between the data storage apparatuses202(1)-202(n) (and one or more modules, components, etc. therein, suchas, node computing devices 206(1)-206(n), for example), although anynumber of other elements or components can also be included in theclustered network environment 200 in other examples. This technologyprovides a number of advantages including methods, non-transitorycomputer readable media, and computing devices that implement thetechniques described herein.

In this example, node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can be primary orlocal storage controllers or secondary or remote storage controllersthat provide client devices 208(1)-208(n) with access to data storedwithin data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) and cloud storage device(s)236. The node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) may be implemented ashardware, software (e.g., a storage virtual machine), or combinationthereof.

The data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/or node computing devices206(1)-206(n) of the examples described and illustrated herein are notlimited to any particular geographic areas and can be clustered locallyand/or remotely via a cloud network, or not clustered in other examples.Thus, in one example the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/ornode computing device 206(1)-206(n) can be distributed over a pluralityof storage systems located in a plurality of geographic locations (e.g.,located on-premise, located within a cloud computing environment, etc.);while in another example a clustered network can include data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) and/or node computing device 206(1)-206(n)residing in a same geographic location (e.g., in a single on-site rack).

In the illustrated example, one or more of the client devices208(1)-208(n), which may be, for example, personal computers (PCs),computing devices used for storage (e.g., storage servers), or othercomputers or peripheral devices, are coupled to the respective datastorage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) by network connections 212(1)-212(n).Network connections 212(1)-212(n) may include a local area network (LAN)or wide area network (WAN) (i.e., a cloud network), for example, thatutilize TCP/IP and/or one or more Network Attached Storage (NAS)protocols, such as a Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS) protocol or aNetwork Filesystem (NFS) protocol to exchange data packets, a StorageArea Network (SAN) protocol, such as Small Computer System Interface(SCSI) or Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP), an object protocol, such assimple storage service (S3), and/or non-volatile memory express (NVMe),for example.

Illustratively, the client devices 208(1)-208(n) may be general-purposecomputers running applications and may interact with the data storageapparatuses 202(1)-202(n) using a client/server model for exchange ofinformation. That is, the client devices 208(1)-208(n) may request datafrom the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) (e.g., data on one ofthe data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) managed by a network storagecontroller configured to process I/O commands issued by the clientdevices 208(1)-208(n)), and the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n)may return results of the request to the client devices 208(1)-208(n)via the network connections 212(1)-212(n).

The node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) of the data storage apparatuses202(1)-202(n) can include network or host nodes that are interconnectedas a cluster to provide data storage and management services, such as toan enterprise having remote locations, cloud storage (e.g., a storageendpoint may be stored within cloud storage device(s) 236), etc., forexample. Such node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can be attached tothe cluster fabric 204 at a connection point, redistribution point, orcommunication endpoint, for example. One or more of the node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n) may be capable of sending, receiving, and/orforwarding information over a network communications channel, and couldcomprise any type of device that meets any or all of these criteria.

In an example, the node computing devices 206(1) and 206(n) may beconfigured according to a disaster recovery configuration whereby asurviving node provides switchover access to the storage devices210(1)-210(n) in the event a disaster occurs at a disaster storage site(e.g., the node computing device 206(1) provides client device 212(n)with switchover data access to data storage devices 210(n) in the eventa disaster occurs at the second storage site). In other examples, thenode computing device 206(n) can be configured according to an archivalconfiguration and/or the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can beconfigured based on another type of replication arrangement (e.g., tofacilitate load sharing). Additionally, while two node computing devicesare illustrated in FIG. 2, any number of node computing devices or datastorage apparatuses can be included in other examples in other types ofconfigurations or arrangements.

As illustrated in the clustered network environment 200, node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n) can include various functional components thatcoordinate to provide a distributed storage architecture. For example,the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) can include network modules214(1)-214(n) and disk modules 216(1)-216(n). Network modules214(1)-214(n) can be configured to allow the node computing devices206(1)-206(n) (e.g., network storage controllers) to connect with clientdevices 208(1)-208(n) over the storage network connections212(1)-212(n), for example, allowing the client devices 208(1)-208(n) toaccess data stored in the clustered network environment 200.

Further, the network modules 214(1)-214(n) can provide connections withone or more other components through the cluster fabric 204. Forexample, the network module 214(1) of node computing device 206(1) canaccess the data storage device 210(n) by sending a request via thecluster fabric 204 through the disk module 216(n) of node computingdevice 206(n). The cluster fabric 204 can include one or more localand/or wide area computing networks (i.e., cloud networks) embodied asInfiniband, Fibre Channel (FC), or Ethernet networks, for example,although other types of networks supporting other protocols can also beused.

Disk modules 216(1)-216(n) can be configured to connect data storagedevices 210(1)-210(2), such as disks or arrays of disks, SSDs, flashmemory, or some other form of data storage, to the node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n). Often, disk modules 216(1)-216(n) communicatewith the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) according to the SANprotocol, such as SCSI or FCP, for example, although other protocols canalso be used. Thus, as seen from an operating system on node computingdevices 206(1)-206(n), the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can appearas locally attached. In this manner, different node computing devices206(1)-206(n), etc. may access data blocks, files, or objects throughthe operating system, rather than expressly requesting abstract files.

While the clustered network environment 200 illustrates an equal numberof network modules 214(1)-214(2) and disk modules 216(1)-216(n), otherexamples may include a differing number of these modules. For example,there may be a plurality of network and disk modules interconnected in acluster that do not have a one-to-one correspondence between the networkand disk modules. That is, different node computing devices can have adifferent number of network and disk modules, and the same nodecomputing device can have a different number of network modules thandisk modules.

Further, one or more of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) can benetworked with the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) in the cluster,over the storage connections 212(1)-212(n). As an example, respectiveclient devices 208(1)-208(n) that are networked to a cluster may requestservices (e.g., exchanging of information in the form of data packets)of node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) in the cluster, and the nodecomputing devices 206(1)-206(n) can return results of the requestedservices to the client devices 208(1)-208(n). In one example, the clientdevices 208(1)-208(n) can exchange information with the network modules214(1)-214(n) residing in the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n)(e.g., network hosts) in the data storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n).

In one example, the storage apparatuses 202(1)-202(n) host aggregatescorresponding to physical local and remote data storage devices, such aslocal flash or disk storage in the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n),for example. One or more of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) caninclude mass storage devices, such as disks of a disk array. The disksmay comprise any type of mass storage devices, including but not limitedto magnetic disk drives, flash memory, and any other similar mediaadapted to store information, including, for example, data and/or parityinformation.

The aggregates include volumes 218(1)-218(n) in this example, althoughany number of volumes can be included in the aggregates. The volumes218(1)-218(n) are virtual data stores or storage objects that define anarrangement of storage and one or more filesystems within the clusterednetwork environment 200. Volumes 218(1)-218(n) can span a portion of adisk or other storage device, a collection of disks, or portions ofdisks, for example, and typically define an overall logical arrangementof data storage. In one example volumes 218(1)-218(n) can include storeduser data as one or more files, blocks, or objects that reside in ahierarchical directory structure within the volumes 218(1)-218(n).

Volumes 218(1)-218(n) are typically configured in formats that may beassociated with particular storage systems, and respective volumeformats typically comprise features that provide functionality to thevolumes 218(1)-218(n), such as providing the ability for volumes218(1)-218(n) to form clusters, among other functionality. Optionally,one or more of the volumes 218(1)-218(n) can be in composite aggregatesand can extend between one or more of the data storage devices210(1)-210(n) and one or more of the cloud storage device(s) 236 toprovide tiered storage, for example, and other arrangements can also beused in other examples.

In one example, to facilitate access to data stored on the disks orother structures of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n), a filesystemmay be implemented that logically organizes the information as ahierarchical structure of directories and files. In this example,respective files may be implemented as a set of disk blocks of aparticular size that are configured to store information, whereasdirectories may be implemented as specially formatted files in whichinformation about other files and directories are stored.

Data can be stored as files or objects within a physical volume and/or avirtual volume, which can be associated with respective volumeidentifiers. The physical volumes correspond to at least a portion ofphysical storage devices, such as the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n)(e.g., a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAIDsystem)) whose address, addressable space, location, etc. does notchange. Typically the location of the physical volumes does not changein that the range of addresses used to access it generally remainsconstant.

Virtual volumes, in contrast, can be stored over an aggregate ofdisparate portions of different physical storage devices. Virtualvolumes may be a collection of different available portions of differentphysical storage device locations, such as some available space fromdisks, for example. It will be appreciated that since the virtualvolumes are not “tied” to any one particular storage device, virtualvolumes can be said to include a layer of abstraction or virtualization,which allows it to be resized and/or flexible in some regards.

Further, virtual volumes can include one or more logical unit numbers(LUNs), directories, Qtrees, files, and/or other storage objects, forexample. Among other things, these features, but more particularly theLUNs, allow the disparate memory locations within which data is storedto be identified, for example, and grouped as data storage unit. Assuch, the LUNs may be characterized as constituting a virtual disk ordrive upon which data within the virtual volumes is stored within anaggregate. For example, LUNs are often referred to as virtual drives,such that they emulate a hard drive, while they actually comprise datablocks stored in various parts of a volume.

In one example, the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can have one ormore physical ports, wherein each physical port can be assigned a targetaddress (e.g., SCSI target address). To represent respective volumes, atarget address on the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) can be used toidentify one or more of the LUNs. Thus, for example, when one of thenode computing devices 206(1)-206(n) connects to a volume, a connectionbetween the one of the node computing devices 206(1)-206(n) and one ormore of the LUNs underlying the volume is created.

Respective target addresses can identify multiple of the LUNs, such thata target address can represent multiple volumes. The I/O interface,which can be implemented as circuitry and/or software in a storageadapter or as executable code residing in memory and executed by aprocessor, for example, can connect to volumes by using one or moreaddresses that identify the one or more of the LUNs.

Referring to FIG. 3, node computing device 206(1) in this particularexample includes processor(s) 300, a memory 302, a network adapter 304,a cluster access adapter 306, and a storage adapter 308 interconnectedby a system bus 310. In other examples, the node computing device 206(1)comprises a virtual machine, such as a virtual storage machine. The nodecomputing device 206(1) also includes a storage operating system 312installed in the memory 302 that can, for example, implement a RAID dataloss protection and recovery scheme to optimize reconstruction of dataof a failed disk or drive in an array, along with other functionalitysuch as deduplication, compression, snapshot creation, data mirroring,synchronous replication, asynchronous replication, encryption, etc. Insome examples, the node computing device 206(n) is substantially thesame in structure and/or operation as node computing device 206(1),although the node computing device 206(n) can also include a differentstructure and/or operation in one or more aspects than the nodecomputing device 206(1).

The network adapter 304 in this example includes the mechanical,electrical and signaling circuitry needed to connect the node computingdevice 206(1) to one or more of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) overnetwork connections 212(1)-212(n), which may comprise, among otherthings, a point-to-point connection or a shared medium, such as a localarea network. In some examples, the network adapter 304 furthercommunicates (e.g., using TCP/IP) via the cluster fabric 204 and/oranother network (e.g. a WAN) (not shown) with cloud storage device(s)236 to process storage operations associated with data stored thereon.

The storage adapter 308 cooperates with the storage operating system 312executing on the node computing device 206(1) to access informationrequested by one of the client devices 208(1)-208(n) (e.g., to accessdata on a data storage device 210(1)-210(n) managed by a network storagecontroller). The information may be stored on any type of attached arrayof writeable media such as magnetic disk drives, flash memory, and/orany other similar media adapted to store information.

In the exemplary data storage devices 210(1)-210(n), information can bestored in data blocks on disks. The storage adapter 308 can include I/Ointerface circuitry that couples to the disks over an I/O interconnectarrangement, such as a storage area network (SAN) protocol (e.g., SmallComputer System Interface (SCSI), Internet SCSI (iSCSI), hyperSCSI,Fiber Channel Protocol (FCP)). The information is retrieved by thestorage adapter 308 and, if necessary, processed by the processor(s) 300(or the storage adapter 308 itself) prior to being forwarded over thesystem bus 310 to the network adapter 304 (and/or the cluster accessadapter 306 if sending to another node computing device in the cluster)where the information is formatted into a data packet and returned to arequesting one of the client devices 208(1)-208(2) and/or sent toanother node computing device attached via the cluster fabric 204. Insome examples, a storage driver 314 in the memory 302 interfaces withthe storage adapter to facilitate interactions with the data storagedevices 210(1)-210(n).

The storage operating system 312 can also manage communications for thenode computing device 206(1) among other devices that may be in aclustered network, such as attached to a cluster fabric 204. Thus, thenode computing device 206(1) can respond to client device requests tomanage data on one of the data storage devices 210(1)-210(n) or cloudstorage device(s) 236 (e.g., or additional clustered devices) inaccordance with the client device requests.

The file system module 318 of the storage operating system 312 canestablish and manage one or more filesystems including software code anddata structures that implement a persistent hierarchical namespace offiles and directories, for example. As an example, when a new datastorage device (not shown) is added to a clustered network system, thefile system module 318 is informed where, in an existing directory tree,new files associated with the new data storage device are to be stored.This is often referred to as “mounting” a filesystem.

In the example node computing device 206(1), memory 302 can includestorage locations that are addressable by the processor(s) 300 andadapters 304, 306, and 308 for storing related software application codeand data structures. The processor(s) 300 and adapters 304, 306, and 308may, for example, include processing elements and/or logic circuitryconfigured to execute the software code and manipulate the datastructures.

The storage operating system 312, portions of which are typicallyresident in the memory 302 and executed by the processor(s) 300, invokesstorage operations in support of a file service implemented by the nodecomputing device 206(1). Other processing and memory mechanisms,including various computer readable media, may be used for storingand/or executing application instructions pertaining to the techniquesdescribed and illustrated herein. For example, the storage operatingsystem 312 can also utilize one or more control files (not shown) to aidin the provisioning of virtual machines.

In this particular example, the memory 302 also includes a moduleconfigured to implement the techniques described herein.

The examples of the technology described and illustrated herein may beembodied as one or more non-transitory computer or machine readablemedia, such as the memory 302, having machine or processor-executableinstructions stored thereon for one or more aspects of the presenttechnology, which when executed by processor(s), such as processor(s)300, cause the processor(s) to carry out the steps necessary toimplement the methods of this technology, as described and illustratedwith the examples herein. In some examples, the executable instructionsare configured to perform one or more steps of a method described andillustrated later.

One embodiment of policy enforcement at sub-lun granularity isillustrated by an exemplary method 400 of FIG. 4 and further describedin conjunction with system 500 of FIG. 5 and/or system 600 of FIG. 6. Astorage service may comprise a node hosting a storage operating systemthat stores data within one or more storage devices. The storage servicemay implement a separate virtualization environment (e.g., a hypervisor,a server virtualization platform, etc.) to host one or more virtualmachines that store data within the storage devices managed by thestorage service. The virtualization environment may create one or moreLUNs, such as a first LUN 502, within the storage managed by the storageservice. In an example, the virtualization environment may create a filesystem used to store data of virtual machines, such as virtual machinedisks, within the first LUN 502. For example, the virtualizationenvironment may host a first virtual machine that stores data within afirst virtual disk and a second virtual disk within the first LUN 502.The virtualization environment may host a second virtual machine thatstores data within a virtual disk within the first LUN 502. It may beappreciated that the virtualization environment may store any number ofvirtual disks of virtual machines within the first LUN 502 and/or otherLUNs stored within the storage managed by the storage service. Suchvirtual machines may be hosted on behalf of clients of the storageservice that subscribe to varying levels of quality of service policies(e.g., a gold/high level of service, a silver/medium level of service, abronze/standard level of service, etc.).

A request may be received for a particular quality of service to providefor the virtual machine disk of the second virtual machine. The qualityof service may specify a minimum throughput of 1,000 operations persecond, a maximum throughput of 2,000 operations per second, and/orother resource and performance guarantees that are to be provided by thestorage service for the virtual machine disk of the second virtualmachine. Accordingly, at 402, a block range 510 of the virtual disk ofthe second virtual machine within the first LUN 502 is identified. Forexample, the storage service may transmit a request to a management tierof the virtualization environment for the block range 510 of the virtualdisk of the second virtual machine. The management tier of thevirtualization environment may return the block range 510 of 6000 to6999 at which the virtual disk of the second virtual machine is storedwithin the first LUN 502 by a file system managed by the virtualizationenvironment. In an example, a virtual storage console can be used toplug into a management tier of the virtualization environment (e.g., amiddle tier) to obtain and provide the block range 510 of 6000 to 6999to the storage service.

At 404, a quality of service policy object 512 is assigned to the blockrange 510 of 6000 to 6999 of the virtual disk to create a quality ofservice workload object 514. For example, a quality of service policymay be created based upon the request, thus resulting in the quality ofservice policy object 512 having the minimum throughput of 1,000operations per second, the maximum throughput of 2,000 operations persecond, a policy identifier of the quality of service policy, and anumber of workload objects utilizing the quality of service policyobject 512 (e.g., the number of workload objects may be incremented asthe quality of service policy is assigned to block ranges of differentvirtual disks). In an example, the first LUN 502 may be assigned to thequality of service policy to create the quality of service policy object512. During the assignment, the block range 510 of 6000 to 6999 of thevirtual disk is specified as optional input for assigning the first LUN502 to the quality of service policy so that the quality of servicepolicy will be applied to merely the block range 510 of 6000 to 6999and/or other specified block ranges of the first LUN 502. Thus, thequality of service policy will be applied to merely those specifiedblock ranges as opposed to the entire first LUN 502.

In an example, the quality of service workload object 514 is createdbased upon an assignment of the block range 510 of 6000 to 6999 to thequality of service policy represented by the quality of service policyobject 512. If other block ranges (e.g., other virtual disks within thefirst LUN 502) are assigned to the quality of service policy object 512,then additional quality of service workload objects would be created andthe number of workload objects utilizing the quality of service policyobject 512 would be incremented accordingly within the quality ofservice policy object 512. The quality of service workload object 514may specify a workload name, a workload identifier, a policy group name,a volume name, a LUN name of the first LUN 502, a range low value of6000 corresponding to the low value of the block range 510 of thevirtual disk, a range high value of 6999 corresponding to the high valueof the block range 510 of the virtual disk, and/or other information.

In an example, the quality of service policy comprises an adaptivequality of service policy. The adaptively quality of service policy maybe dynamically modified based upon real-time operation and performancemonitoring of the virtual disk, the virtual machine, etc. In this way,the quality of service policy object 512 may be dynamically modified,such as where additional quality of service metrics are added, qualityof service metrics are removed, existing quality of service metrics aremodified (e.g., the maximum throughput may be modified from 2000 to2500), etc.

Because merely the block range 510 is assigned to the quality of servicepolicy, the quality of service policy is not assigned to other blockranges within the first LUN 502. For example, a block range 504 of 0 to999 within the first LUN 502 may correspond to the first virtual disk ofthe first virtual machine. If the quality of service policy is not to beenforced for the first virtual disk of the first virtual machine, thenno quality of service workload object is created to enforce the qualityof service policy for the block range 504 of 0 to 999. A block range 506of 1000 to 1999 within the first LUN 502 may correspond to a secondvirtual disk of the first virtual machine. If the quality of servicepolicy is not to be enforced for the second virtual disk of the firstvirtual machine, then no quality of service workload object is createdto for enforcing the quality of service policy for the block range 506of 1000 to 1999. A block range 508 of 2000 to 5999 within the first LUNmay correspond to other data than virtual disks. If the quality ofservice policy is not to be enforced for the other data, then no qualityof service workload object is created to for enforcing the quality ofservice policy for the block range 508 of 2000 to 5999.

At 406, an operation (e.g., a write operation, a read operation, etc.)is received by the storage service, such as by the storage operatingsystem of the node (e.g., a data plane managed by the storage service).The operation may be evaluated to identify the first LUN 502 and atarget block range targeted by the operation. For example, a commanddescriptor block may specify a logical block address being accessed bythe operation as the target block range.

In an example, a workload lookup using a LUN identifier (e.g., a LUNidentifier/name of the first LUN 502 being accessed by the operation)specified by the operation may be performed to identify the quality ofservice workload object 514 as corresponding to the LUN identifier(e.g., the LUN name of the first LUN 502) and to determine that thetarget block range (e.g., a start logical block address of theoperation) is within the block range 510 of the virtual disk specifiedby the range low value of 6000 and the range high value of 6999 withinthe quality of service workload object 514. A workload to policy lookupis then performed to identify the quality of service policy object 512as being assigned/mapped to the quality of service workload object 514.In this way, the quality of service policy is identified to apply to theoperation because the operation targets the virtual disk for which thequality of service policy is to be enforced.

At 408, the quality of service policy is enforced upon the operationbased upon the operation targeting the target block range within theblock range 510 of 6000 to 6999 of the virtual disk to which the qualityof service policy is assigned through the quality of service workloadobject 514.

In an example, a second operation may be received. The second operationmay target a second target block range within the block range 506 of1000 to 1999 of the second virtual disk of the first virtual machine. Aworkload lookup using the LUN identifier of the first LUN 502 specifiedby the operation and the second target block range may indicate thatthere is no quality of service workload object associated with thesecond block range targeted by the second operation (e.g., because thereis no quality of service policy assigned to the block range 506 of 1000to 1999 of the second virtual disk). In this way, no quality of servicepolicy is enforced upon the second operation.

Various operations and performance monitoring can be provided for thevirtual disk of the second virtual machine using the quality of serviceworkload object 514 and the quality of service policy object 512. In anexample, performance of the virtual disk of the second virtual machinecan be monitored using the quality of service workload object 514 forthe block range 510 of 6000 to 6999 of the virtual disk. Variousperformance metrics may be tracked such as a round trip time of anoperation being processed by the storage service. In this way, sub-LUNgranularity of performance monitoring may be performed by the storageservice for virtual disks and/or virtual machines hosted by the separatevirtualization environment within LUNs.

In another example, a show quality of service policy command may bereceived. The show quality of service policy command may requestinformation about the quality of service policy. Accordingly, thequality of service policy object 512 corresponding to the requestedquality of service policy is identified. Various information, such as apolicy identifier of 1234, quality of service metrics to enforce (e.g.,the minimum throughout of 1000 operations per second and the maximumthroughput of 2000 operations per second), the number of quality ofservice workload objects to which the quality of service policy object512 is assigned, etc., may be extracted and displayed in response to theshow quality of service policy command.

In another example, a show quality of service workload command may bereceived. The show quality of service workload command may requestinformation about a particular quality of service workload object of aparticular virtual disk (block range). Accordingly, the quality ofservice workload object 514 corresponding to the requested quality ofservice workload object is identified. Various information, such as aworkload name, a workload identifier, a policy group name, a volumename, a LUN name, a block range low value, a block range high value,etc., may be extracted and displayed in response to the show quality ofservice workload command.

In another example, a block range delete command may be received. Theblock range delete command may specify a block range and an indicationthat the block range is to be deleted. In this way, the block range isdeleted based upon the block range delete command (e.g., a quality ofservice workflow object for the block range is deleted and/or datastored within the block range is deleted). In another example, a blockrange move command is received. The block range move command may specifythat a block range is to be moved from the first LUN 502 to adestination LUN (e.g., a new LUN). Accordingly, the block range is movedfrom the first LUN 502 to the destination LUN. LUN information within aquality of service workflow object associated with the block range beingmoved is updated from specifying the first LUN 502 to specifying thedestination LUN. In another example, a modify command may be received.The modify command may specify a block range and a new block range.Accordingly, the block range within a quality of service workload objectis modified to the new block range.

FIG. 6 illustrates a system 600 assigning and enforcing a quality ofservice policy at a virtual machine granularity. For example, a requestmay be received to assign a quality of service policy to a first virtualmachine. A first virtual disk of the first virtual machine may be storedwithin a block range 604 of 0 to 999 within a first LUN 602 and a secondvirtual disk of the virtual machine may be stored within a block range606 of 1000 to 1999 within the first LUN 602 by a virtualizationenvironment. The first LUN 602 may comprise other data stored within ablock range 608 of 2000 to 6999, a virtual disk of a second virtualmachine within a block range 610 of 6000 to 6999, and/or other datawithin the first LUN 602.

A determination is made that the first virtual disk and the secondvirtual disk are used by the first virtual machine. For example, astorage service of the system 600 may obtain such information from thevirtualization environment. The block range 604 of 0 to 999 within thefirst LUN 602 may be identified as a location where a file system of thevirtualization environment has stored the first virtual disk within thefirst LUN 602. The block range 606 of 1000 to 1999 within the first LUN602 may be identified as a location where the file system of thevirtualization environment has stored the second virtual disk within thefirst LUN 602. In this way, a set of block ranges, within the first LUN602, of virtual disks of the first virtual machine are identified.

A quality of service policy object 612 is created to represent thequality of service policy. The quality of service policy object 612comprises a policy identifier of the quality of service policy, qualityof service metrics of the quality of service policy to enforce, a numberof workloads enforcing the quality of service policy upon block ranges,and/or other information. The quality of service policy is assigned tothe block range 604 of 0 to 999 of the first virtual disk using thequality of service policy object 612 to create a first quality ofservice workload object 614 used to enforce the quality of servicepolicy upon the first virtual disk of the first virtual machine. Thefirst quality of service workload object 614 may comprise a workloadname, a workload identifier, a policy group name, a volume name, a LUNname of the first LUN 602, a low block range of 0 indicating a startingblock of the block range 604 of the first virtual disk, a high blockrange of 999 indicating an ending block of the block range 604 of thefirst virtual disk, and/or other information.

The quality of service policy is assigned to the block range 606 of 1000to 1999 of the second virtual disk using the quality of service policyobject 612 to create a second quality of service workload object 616used to enforce the quality of service policy upon the second virtualdisk of the first virtual machine. The second quality of serviceworkload object 616 may comprise a workload name, a workload identifier,a policy group name, a volume name, a LUN name of the first LUN 602, alow block range of 1000 indicating a starting block of the block range606 of the second virtual disk, a high block range of 1999 indicating anending block of the block range 606 of the second virtual disk, and/orother information.

The first quality of service workload object 614 is used to enforce thequality of service policy upon operations targeting blocks within theblock range 604 of 0 to 999 of the first virtual disk. The secondquality of service workload object 616 is used to enforce the quality ofservice policy upon operations targeting blocks of the first LUN 602within the block range 606 of 1000 to 1999 of the second virtual disk.In this way, the quality of service policy is enforced by the storageservice for the virtual disks of the virtual machine notwithstanding thevirtual disks being managed by a separate virtualization environment.

According to a further aspect of the present disclosure, anapparatus/machine/system for policy enforcement and performancemonitoring at a sub-LUN granularity comprises a means for identifying ablock range of a virtual disk of a virtual machine stored within alogical unit number (LUN), a means for assigning a quality of service(QoS) policy object to the block range to create a QoS workload object,a means for identifying a target block range targeted by an operation,and a means for enforcing a policy of the QoS policy object upon theoperation using the QoS workload object based upon the target blockrange being within the block range of the virtual disk.

Still another embodiment involves a computer-readable medium 700comprising processor-executable instructions configured to implement oneor more of the techniques presented herein. An example embodiment of acomputer-readable medium or a computer-readable device that is devisedin these ways is illustrated in FIG. 7, wherein the implementationcomprises a computer-readable medium 708, such as a compactdisc-recordable (CD-R), a digital versatile disc-recordable (DVD-R),flash drive, a platter of a hard disk drive, etc., on which is encodedcomputer-readable data 706. This computer-readable data 706, such asbinary data comprising at least one of a zero or a one, in turncomprises a processor-executable computer instructions 704 configured tooperate according to one or more of the principles set forth herein. Insome embodiments, the processor-executable computer instructions 704 areconfigured to perform a method 702, such as at least some of theexemplary method 400 of FIG. 4, for example. In some embodiments, theprocessor-executable computer instructions 704 are configured toimplement a system, such as at least some of the exemplary system 500 ofFIG. 5 and/or at least some of the exemplary system 60 of FIG. 6, forexample. Many such computer-readable media are contemplated to operatein accordance with the techniques presented herein.

In an embodiment, the described methods and/or their equivalents may beimplemented with computer executable instructions. Thus, in anembodiment, a non-transitory computer readable/storage medium isconfigured with stored computer executable instructions of analgorithm/executable application that when executed by a machine(s)cause the machine(s) (and/or associated components) to perform themethod. Example machines include but are not limited to a processor, acomputer, a server operating in a cloud computing system, a serverconfigured in a Software as a Service (SaaS) architecture, a smartphone, and so on). In an embodiment, a computing device is implementedwith one or more executable algorithms that are configured to performany of the disclosed methods.

It will be appreciated that processes, architectures and/or proceduresdescribed herein can be implemented in hardware, firmware and/orsoftware. It will also be appreciated that the provisions set forthherein may apply to any type of special-purpose computer (e.g., filehost, storage server and/or storage serving appliance) and/orgeneral-purpose computer, including a standalone computer or portionthereof, embodied as or including a storage system. Moreover, theteachings herein can be configured to a variety of storage systemarchitectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storageenvironment and/or a storage area network and disk assembly directlyattached to a client or host computer. Storage system should thereforebe taken broadly to include such arrangements in addition to anysubsystems configured to perform a storage function and associated withother equipment or systems.

In some embodiments, methods described and/or illustrated in thisdisclosure may be realized in whole or in part on computer-readablemedia. Computer readable media can include processor-executableinstructions configured to implement one or more of the methodspresented herein, and may include any mechanism for storing this datathat can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of computerreadable media include (hard) drives (e.g., accessible via networkattached storage (NAS)), Storage Area Networks (SAN), volatile andnon-volatile memory, such as read-only memory (ROM), random-accessmemory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM) and/or flash memory, compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM)s,CD-Rs, compact disk re-writeable (CD-RW)s, DVDs, cassettes, magnetictape, magnetic disk storage, optical or non-optical data storage devicesand/or any other medium which can be used to store data.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features or methodological acts, it is to be understood thatthe subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, thespecific features and acts described above are disclosed as exampleforms of implementing at least some of the claims.

Various operations of embodiments are provided herein. The order inwhich some or all of the operations are described should not beconstrued to imply that these operations are necessarily orderdependent. Alternative ordering will be appreciated given the benefit ofthis description. Further, it will be understood that not all operationsare necessarily present in each embodiment provided herein. Also, itwill be understood that not all operations are necessary in someembodiments.

Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard application orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof to control a computer to implement the disclosedsubject matter. The term “article of manufacture” as used herein isintended to encompass a computer application accessible from anycomputer-readable device, carrier, or media. Of course, manymodifications may be made to this configuration without departing fromthe scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter.

As used in this application, the terms “component”, “module,” “system”,“interface”, and the like are generally intended to refer to acomputer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware andsoftware, software, or software in execution. For example, a componentincludes a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, anexecutable, a thread of execution, an application, or a computer. By wayof illustration, both an application running on a controller and thecontroller can be a component. One or more components residing within aprocess or thread of execution and a component may be localized on onecomputer or distributed between two or more computers.

Moreover, “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as an example,instance, illustration, etc., and not necessarily as advantageous. Asused in this application, “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or”rather than an exclusive “or”. In addition, “a” and “an” as used in thisapplication are generally be construed to mean “one or more” unlessspecified otherwise or clear from context to be directed to a singularform. Also, at least one of A and B and/or the like generally means A orB and/or both A and B. Furthermore, to the extent that “includes”,“having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used, such terms areintended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising”.

Many modifications may be made to the instant disclosure withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the claimed subject matter. Unlessspecified otherwise, “first,” “second,” or the like are not intended toimply a temporal aspect, a spatial aspect, an ordering, etc. Rather,such terms are merely used as identifiers, names, etc. for features,elements, items, etc. For example, a first set of information and asecond set of information generally correspond to set of information Aand set of information B or two different or two identical sets ofinformation or the same set of information.

Also, although the disclosure has been shown and described with respectto one or more implementations, equivalent alterations and modificationswill occur to others skilled in the art based upon a reading andunderstanding of this specification and the annexed drawings. Thedisclosure includes all such modifications and alterations and islimited only by the scope of the following claims. In particular regardto the various functions performed by the above described components(e.g., elements, resources, etc.), the terms used to describe suchcomponents are intended to correspond, unless otherwise indicated, toany component which performs the specified function of the describedcomponent (e.g., that is functionally equivalent), even though notstructurally equivalent to the disclosed structure. In addition, while aparticular feature of the disclosure may have been disclosed withrespect to only one of several implementations, such feature may becombined with one or more other features of the other implementations asmay be desired and advantageous for any given or particular application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: identifying a block range ofa virtual disk of a virtual machine stored within a logical unit number(LUN); assigning a quality of service (QoS) policy object to the blockrange to create a QoS workload object; identifying a target block rangetargeted by an operation; and enforcing a policy of the QoS policyobject upon the operation using the QoS workload object based upon thetarget block range being within the block range of the virtual disk. 2.The method of claim 1, comprising: refraining from enforcing the policyof the QoS policy object upon a second operation based upon the secondoperation targeting blocks within the LUN that are outside the blockrange of the virtual disk.
 3. The method of claim 1, comprising:monitoring performance of the virtual disk using the QoS workload objectbased upon execution of operations targeting the block range.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, comprising: assigning the QoS policy object to asecond block range of a second virtual disk to create a second workloadobject.
 5. The method of claim 4, comprising: enforcing the policy ofthe QoS policy object upon a second operation targeting a second targetblock range using the second QoS workload object based upon the secondtarget block range being within the second block range.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, comprising: modifying the block range within the QoS workloadobject to a new block range based upon a modify command specifying theblock range and the new block range.
 7. The method of claim 1,comprising: moving the block range from the LUN to a destination LUN,wherein the QoS workload object is modified with information regardingthe destination LUN.
 8. The method of claim 7, comprising: identifying aset of block ranges, within the LUN, of virtual disks of the virtualmachine and assigning the QoS policy object to the set of block rangesto create a set of workload objects used to enforce the policy of theQoS policy object upon operations targeting blocks within the set ofblock ranges.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the block range is anon-continuous block range.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein thepolicy comprises an adaptive QoS policy, and the method comprises:modifying the adaptive QoS policy of the QoS policy object to modify theQoS policy object.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the block range isa continuous block range.
 12. A non-transitory machine readable mediumcomprising instructions for performing a method, which when executed bya machine, causes the machine to: identify a block range of a virtualdisk of a virtual machine stored within a logical unit number (LUN);assign a quality of service (QoS) policy object to the block range tocreate a QoS workload object; identify a target block range targeted byan operation; and enforce a policy of the QoS policy object upon theoperation using the QoS workload object based upon the target blockrange being within the block range of the virtual disk.
 13. Thenon-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12, wherein theinstructions cause the machine to: create the QoS workload object basedupon an assignment of the block range of the virtual disk to the policyof the QoS policy object.
 14. The non-transitory machine readable mediumof claim 12, wherein the instructions cause the machine to: assign theLUN to the policy to create the QoS policy object, wherein the blockrange is specified as optional input for assigning the LUN to thepolicy.
 15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 12,wherein the instructions cause the machine to: implement a show QoSworkload command to display a workload name, a workload identifier, apolicy group name, a LUN name, a low block range value, and a high blockrange value of the QoS workload object.
 16. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions cause the machineto: implement a show QoS policy command to display an identifier, QoSmetrics to enforce, and a number of QoS workload objects to which theQoS policy object is assigned.
 17. The non-transitory machine readablemedium of claim 12, wherein the instructions cause the machine to:perform a workload lookup using a LUN identifier specified by theoperation to identify the QoS workload object as corresponding to theLUN identifier and a starting logical block address associated with theoperation.
 18. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 17,wherein the instructions cause the machine to: perform a workload topolicy lookup to identify the QoS policy object as being assigned to theQoS workload object and enforce the policy of the QoS policy object uponthe operation.
 19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim12, wherein the instructions cause the machine to: delete the blockrange based upon a block range delete command.
 20. A computing devicecomprising: a memory comprising machine executable code for performing amethod; and a processor coupled to the memory, the processor configuredto execute the machine executable code to cause the processor to:identify a block range of a virtual disk of a virtual machine storedwithin a logical unit number (LUN); assign a quality of service (QoS)policy object to the block range to create a QoS workload object;identify a target block range targeted by an operation; and enforce apolicy of the QoS policy object upon the operation using the QoSworkload object based upon the target block range being within the blockrange of the virtual disk.